#74 VAGABOND: Lost in the French Wild Agnès Varda 1985

"It's good to be alone." --Simone/Mona Bergeron This film is a good bookend to Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild.  Mona Bergeron and Christopher McCandless are kindred, and I was fascinated by the different cultural contexts inspiring very complementary reactions to these free but flawed spirits. The kindnesses and cruelties are of a different shade, of …

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#820 FANTASTIC PLANET René Laloux 1973

"I needed...to prove to myself that I was...a reasoning creature...and not a beast..." (Pierre Boulle Planet of the Apes). Literally a rich landscape, an allegory rife with symbolism.  Not being an artist, I would not want to comment on the technical aspects of the film in that regard, but it must be noted that the art …

#538 PATHS OF GLORY Stanley Kubrick 1957

"I knew I should of taken the Ant Hill." Timothy Carey's sardonic tone so captures the absurdity of the events here.   Kubrick would be remiss if he did not touch on the absurdity inherent in situations such as those depicted in this film.  Any work that spotlights authority has to be able to laugh …